Egypt parliament to discuss new amendments to 'terrorist entities law'

Gamal Essam El-Din, , Monday 27 Jan 2020

The new amendments aim to broaden the scope of terrorist entities to include hostile television channels involved in inciting violence and promoting terrorist activities

The Egyptian parliament’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee began on Monday morning discussing new amendments to the so-called terrorist entities law (law no.8/2015).

The new amendments aim to widen the scope of entities labelled as terrorist or being involved in funding terrorist activities and operations.

Article 1 of the 2015 law will be amended to place Muslim Brotherhood-linked television channels broadcasting from Turkey and Qatar on the list of terrorist entities. The list will also include radio stations and social media accounts involved in inciting violence and terrorism.

“The last period showed that a number of television channels were involved in inciting violence and promoting terrorist operations, and so these channels should be placed on the list of entities designated as terrorist,” said the amendment, adding that “this will include channels established by individuals, companies or institutions.”

The amendments also state that individuals labelled terrorists will be stripped of all forms of government subsidies, primarily food subsidies.

“These, once labelled terrorist, will also lose all kinds of public memberships, including those in professional syndicates, boards of companies, sporting clubs, and unions,” said the draft law.

In funding terms, the amendments state that all assets owned by “terrorist entities” will be frozen.

“The returns of these assets – owned either directly or indirectly by a terrorist entity – will be confiscated,” said the draft law, indicating that “these assets could be financial or economic resources such as oil or natural resources, as well as all forms of property, documents, legal tools, national or foreign currency, financial or commercial securities, tourist and banking cheques, documentary credit, and all returns or profits generated by all these assets or others."

The amendments also state that entities publicly declared as terrorist will be banned from exercising any activities such as gathering money or holding meetings or having offices.

“All forms of promotion – such as raising the slogans of terrorist activities – will be also banned and incriminated,” said the draft law.

The amendments also state that individuals listed as terrorists will be stripped of passports and barred from assuming public posts or joining parliament.